Installing a 12 saddle bridge

whitfordstholmes · Post by **whitfordstholmes** » Thu Jul 05, 2001 7:35 am

I wish I'd have known this stuff 10 years ago (before I got rid of my RM370)...

markthemd · Post by **markthemd** » Thu Jul 05, 2001 7:36 am

I can take care of the fret troubles that you are having also ....just email me or call .

I'm so glad that you like what I did .

rickplayer · Post by **rickplayer** » Thu Jul 05, 2001 8:21 am

I didn't mention that the bridge was indeed moved. This allowed for the saddles to be in their proper location, and not crammed against the back of the bridge. This was the case with my TP12 also. I actually had thoughts of moving my TP12 bridge but blew it off thinking the factory must know where it goes. It must be my fault. Boy was I wrong! Happy playing all!

Jon

jimd · Post by **jimd** » Wed Jan 16, 2002 2:22 pm

How level should a 12 saddle bridge sit on a RIC? My strings are pulling the bridge towards the neck. The screws closest to the pickups contol all string height. The screws towards the trapeze hardly support the bridge at all.The bridge is 1/16" out of level. This rolling causes the strings to rest on the back edge of the bridge instead of just across the saddles. I think this has a noticable effect on the sound of the strings. The 6 saddle seemed clearer, more metallic, but was out of tune. This has been bugging me since I made the mods. The guitar plays and sounds good.

Also, any suggestions to posting photos to this forum? My photos of this problem are sitting here, but I haven't figured out how to send them.

admin · Post by **admin** » Wed Jan 16, 2002 3:03 pm

Jim: Go to the Coding heading at your left in the menu under Posting for instructions. Be sure that your photos are compressed to less than 15k. You will need to use the {} brackets.

The code for posting a photo is
\image(caption) but be sure to use the {} brackets in place of the () brackets used in this example.

anonymous · Post by **anonymous** » Thu Jan 17, 2002 9:58 am

Setting the level on a Rick guitar 6 or 12 can be painful mentally .

The plate the bridge sits on was not machined very well until 1985 .

Here is the problem with the instruments made before then ,

the chassis was NOT a square cornered piece and as the bottom of the chassis had a slight curve in it ( and this varied from chassis to chassis ) the holes that were drilled and tapped in the corners for the 'feet' are crooked .
Then the plate is NOT EVER symetrical ! The 4 feet holes were drilled free of an alignment jig that used the two mounting holes to align everything .Check the old plates out ... pretty hand made .

Advancing to now , we have a properly made chassis with vertical holes for the feet and symetrical positioning in the chassis .

For the most part , the plate is too , although I just found one on a 360-12 Fireglo that I just realigned the plate to center on the neck as well as the bridge ...way off and frustrating to the previous person that worked on it .

anonymous · Post by **anonymous** » Thu Jan 17, 2002 10:02 am

To set the guitar to level , start here ...

Remove the bridge from the guitar and set the legs/feet to level off the guitar .

Lift the strings and reinstall the bridge .

Now set the height .To do this take one of the feet/legs on the bass side and raise it so it will NOT be in play untill you want to set it .

Set the height for the bass side , then lower the other leg into place .It does not rock side to side now does it ?

Do the same for the treble side .

That is it .

Now you can fight it on the guitar , but this will take less time and less frustration in the long run .

anonymous · Post by **anonymous** » Thu Jan 17, 2002 12:01 pm

Speaking of Rickenbacker bridges, has anyone ever noticed that the saddles on stock bridges are always slotted on the treble side of the saddle. (I've noticed this on all Ricks that I've encountered in various guitar shops, 6 string or 12). Why is this? One would think that strings would be centered on the saddles or symmetrically distributed about the axis parallel to the neck of the guitar (i.e. treble strings would be skewed toward the treble side of the saddle, bass strings would be skewed toward the bass side of the saddle, and middle strings would be centered on the saddle). This phenomenon creates a problem if you elect to exchange a 6-saddle bridge for a 12-saddle, since the narrow saddles on the 12-saddle don't have the room to allow for the skew encountered on a 6-saddle setup. Just curious.

anonymous · Post by **anonymous** » Fri Jan 18, 2002 3:12 am

Actually you would think that a gig would be made using the chassis of a 12 saddle bridge and using the two out side saddles , that would be bolted to a plate and then the plate holes would be centered on all the necks .

BUT !!! then all the plates would have to be made symetrical !

If this were done , then everyones bridges would be interchangeable and no one would have problems with re-aligning a replacement 12 saddle bridge when they decide to upgrade from a six saddle bridge .

rickplayer · Post by **rickplayer** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 8:23 am

I just looked at my stock six saddle bridge from my 1997 360-12V64. The two grooves are nicely centered. The other day I saw a 330-12. It's notches were really skewed and to one side. I guess I got lucky.

seth_lorinczi · Post by **seth_lorinczi** » Sun Sep 05, 2004 5:18 pm

I have just bought my first 12-string, a nice '67 330-12. The nut is non-original and pretty ******. The bridge is the standard 6-saddle. What happens next?

I've ordered a couple of nut blanks; I've made nuts before and I figure by checking against the current one I can come up with something functional.

I've also ordered a 12-saddle bridge, thinking I could plop it on the current baseplate, cut string slots by sighting along the strings, and be done with it. But several sources suggest I use the new version baseplate, or move the old baseplate back. Anyone have any bright ideas?

Thanks,
Seth

seth_lorinczi · Post by **seth_lorinczi** » Sun Sep 05, 2004 5:22 pm

Oops...just read the beginning of this thread. Sounds like that's a good place to start....

grsnovi · Post by **grsnovi** » Mon Sep 06, 2004 8:40 am

Seth -

You can plop the 12 saddle on the existing plate however you need to know if that plate is in the right place 1st. With the six saddle bridge, are any of the saddles all the way back against the inside of the bridge channel? If so (likely the low E string) you will want to move the bridge plate back towards the tail.

As to cutting the slots in the saddles - if the bridge plate is correctly centered, you can simply slot the saddles equally in from the side representing the center of the pair. With your string ceneters approx. 1/8" this would make your notches about 0.062" in. I've done two twelve saddle bridges. Somewhere I posted a rather detailed description to the web (not certain what the URL is at the moment). You could email me at [email protected] - put RIC 12 in the subject line or I'd just toss it and I'll email it back to you.

grsnovi · Post by **grsnovi** » Mon Sep 06, 2004 8:44 am

Here is that URL:

http://hometown.aol.com/garyguitars/bridge.htm

seth_lorinczi · Post by **seth_lorinczi** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 6:18 pm

Perfect, thanks so much Gary!